Mindfulness and the stress response
Us human Beings do have rather complex brains and minds to deal with. Much of our mental and physical dis-ease arises from our very own difficult emotions and thoughts.
“My life exists of many terrible misfortunes, many of which never happened”
Yet even though we may have some insight into the fact that it is our own minds that cause our suffering, we still find it difficult to steer ourselves away from worry, rumination, stress, powerful urges and reactivity. The reason? Survival! Our nervous system is biologically and evolutionarily wired to focus on the negative, on potential or actual threats.
So, what goes on in our mind is linked to its design? and is not our fault?
This is true, but not the complete picture.
The problem we face today, is that much of our need for threat-detecting and for our ‘fight and flight’ system has gone. We have no predators to flee from and in the West we have an abundance of food and shelter. Yet this ancient, emotion-driven part of our brains, (structures of the limbic system such as the amygdala and hippocampus) is still with us, as strong as ever. This group of brain structures that we share with other animals, is often referred to as the ‘old brain’.
Enter left of stage, our ‘new brain’ (pre-frontal cortex). The evolution around two million years ago of our cortical brain sets us apart from other animals. This part of our brain allows us to think and have a sense of Self. It allows us to imagine, fantasise, to reason, problem solve, plan, to reminisce and ruminate and to have relational attributes and empathy towards other Beings.
The threats that we try to escape from today are often caused by our ‘new brain’s’ capabilities being hijacked and directed by the ‘old brain’s’ compelling passions, desires, threats and fears. Our planning, reasoning, imagining, and ruminating are often directed by the emotions and motives of the old brain. Rather than using our thinking and attention to control unpleasant emotions or help us stimulate positive emotions, the strong and powerful old brain pulls us in the direction of threat-based anxiety and anger. These threats are often anticipatory (worry about an upcoming event) rather than immediate (escape from predator). This becomes the focus of our thinking and feeling. If this consequence wasn’t enough, the activity going on in our minds creates a hormonal theatre production that plays out in our bodies, causing a stress response and if prolonged and un-mediated, causing illness.
But as we know, every good story ends with good news, and this is no different. The last ten decades have witnessed a drastic shift in the way we understand our nervous system. From a fixed, ‘you’ve got what you’re born with’ paradigm, we now know that the nervous system is plastic. This means that our brain and immune system changes based on what we expose it to and it changes through the experiences that we have.
The brain structure itself can be reshaped;
The way the brain communicates between its structures can change;
And so too can our hormonal and immune profile.
It’s a ‘use it or lose it’ world in there, where our personalities are no longer these ‘fixed’ entities we may have once feared(!) For example, if we expose our brains to rampant, un-monitored negative thoughts, stress hormones and unskilful habits, we must realise, and take responsibility, for the fact that we are training our brain to be better at giving us more of the same!
On the contrary, if we develop our ‘muscle’ of attention in order to catch these habits of mind, our ‘new brain’ can coach our over-adapted, hypervigilant, protective ‘old brain’ to dampen down, to quieten (a process referred to as inhibition). This offers us the experience of safety and a ‘relaxation response’ (a term first coined and studied in the 80's by cardiologist Herbert Benson). In this state, rest and repair on a cellular level is possible. Eventually, with practice and patience (and discipline), we consciously remodel our nervous, hormonal and immune systems (bioplasticity) in order to effortlessly experience a more peaceful, harmonious inner (and outer) world.
Did you know that we have more immune cells in our brain than actual brain (neurones) cells. The brain is an immune organ! And inflammation (an excitable immune system) is THE culprit of all causes of mortality and morbidity (heart disease, cancer, pain, etc)
Mindfulness training helps us gain insight and learn about our own brains and minds, increasing our chances of skilfully directing powerful drives and emotions, rather than having them direct us. Employing mindfulness in our lives is not dissimilar to recruiting a diligent house cleaner. We can consciously clean out unwanted objects and mess such as old habits and unhelpful thoughts, by choosing not to feed and indulge them. After all, unlike our houses, we are in our minds all of our time, why not take care to have a spacious and habitable home to rest in?